Kenya suffer Billie Jean King Cup relegation after winless group-stage run
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Reading Time: 2min | Wed. 15.07.26. | 20:05
The side needed a flawless performance against Algeria on Wednesday, but ended up losing 2-1
For the fourth year running, Kenya’s tennis team will not land promotion into Group II of the Billie Jean King Cup - Africa.
Instead, Kenya will head into the opposite direction, and into Group IV.
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This comes after the team, led by Peter Rakuom, went winless in the first round-robin matches played at the National Tennis Centre in Gaborone, Botswana, to suffer a first relegation from Africa Zone Group III.
Placed in Pool B, Kenya were whitewashed in all their group-stage matches against: Ghana, Tunisia and Algeria, to finish bottom, and out of contention for the rest of the competition.
Coming in as the second-seeds, Kenya, who are without star player Angella Okutoyi, were dealt a big blow to their promotion ambitions when they fell 3-0 to Ghana on Monday, 13 July, before adding more misery by going down by a similar margin to Tunisia on Tuesday, 14 July.
On Wednesday, 15 July, the team comprised of Stacy Yego, Roselida Asumwa, and Faith Urasa, needed a flawless prformance to keep their status alive, but instead lost 2-1 to Algeria, a result that confirmed their relegation from Group III.
Asumwa, playing in the first singles match-up, lost 6-2, 6-1 to Bochra Rehab Mebarki, before Yego restored parity with a 6-2, 6-4 straight-sets victory over Melissa Rym Benamar in the second rubber.
Kenya, would, however, lose in the doubles decider, with the pair of Asumwa and Yego narrowly missing a win via tie-break 6-1, 3-6 (6-10), to the aforementioned Algerian players.
As per the tournament format, the teams finishing bottom in Pool B and C after the first round-robin matches would suffer relegation into Group IV, a fate that befell Kenya and Burundi, who all walked away from their pools winless.
With the tournament extending till Saturday, 18 July, Kenya will have a chance to save some face, when they play in the 10th to 11th place Play-off.
Whichever way the result goes, Kenya will be reeling from a first relegation in 35 years, from the Africa Zone Group III, following their debut in 1991.